Evolution Does Not Allow for Free Will

Merriam-Webster defines free will as either 1. Voluntary choice or decision, or 2. Freedom of humans to make choices that are not determined by prior causes or divine intervention. Both definitions are for humans and only humans. One never speaks of an animal as having free will, only a person. By its very definition, free will is a purely human experience.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/freewill

Since free will is not found in nature, evolutionists must believe this to be something that cannot exist. If there is no free will, then only determinism can exist in the world. Determinism alone is the cause for every action taken by every animal, including humans. In essence, there is no right or wrong, just what nature predetermined to happen will happen.

Merriam-Webster defines determinism as 1. a: a theory or doctrine that acts of the will, occurrences in nature, or social or psychological phenomena are causally determined by preceding events or natural laws, and b: the belief in predestination. If humans are nothing more than animals, then the same forces of nature directing all animals must include people.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/determinism

One cannot believe in evolution without believing in determinism. You cannot believe the laws of nature apply to all animals, including humans, and believe there is something unique about humans. We are nothing more than what our nature dictates us to be.

In March of 2018, Time ran an article which included several quotes from Professor Stephen Hawking. One of the quotes summed up rather succinctly the atheist view of humans as a species. “We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star.”

https://time.com/5198842/stephen-hawking-quotes-universe-life/

If, as Professor Harking says, is true, then we are no more bound by the idea of free will than monkeys. The laws of nature which govern them act in accordance with the same laws that govern us. We are not unique as a species, except for being more evolved. Being more evolved does not mean we are less bound by nature.

In July of 2018, Cosmos ran an article by Alfredo Metere, who is a senior research scientist at the International Computer Science Institute, and the University of California, Berkeley, in which he stated, “But if the initial state is rather quantified by an irrational number, we are instead inferring that the universe is aperiodic, chaotic and therefore only locally predictable in nature… Today, we know that the universe is chaotic… This in turn means that free will is an inevitable illusion for us humans.”

https://cosmosmagazine.com/physics/does-free-will-exist-in-the-universe-that-would-be-a-no

The problem with believing the universe is chaotic, as evolutionists must, is it ignores the laws of physics which govern the universe. These laws show a sense of order throughout the universe and cannot be violated. Without these laws in place, scientific experimentation would be impossible due to the results at any given time would be subject to change at another.

One such law is the Law of conservation of energy. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, no matter where in the universe you happen to be. It can only be transferred. The same energy that existed billions of years ago continue to exist today and will always exist.

Evolutionists have no explanation as to how these laws came into place. Without God, there can be no laws of physics and only chaos would be found. Order cannot come from chaos, but chaos can come from order.

Thought experiments have been used by scientists for thousands of years in one form or another. One such experiment can sum up the point of chaos from order, but not order from chaos. Fill a glass jar with colored sand and layer the colors. Once the glass is filled with numerous lines of colors, shake the jar. Shaking the jar is an act of chaos. No matter how much chaos you introduce to the initial order, you will never get anything other than more chaos. You know the order that existed, but the only way to return the chaos to a state of order is by removing the sand and starting again.

Free will does exist and the evidence is found in one’s own actions or inactions every day. When one driver cuts off a vehicle, the reaction of each driver will be different. Some will get angry and lose their temper, while others will let the moment pass. Both show free will at work, since both show varying actions. If there were no free will, the reactions would not vary.

Man’s inhumanity to man has existed throughout history. Our natural state should be one of aggressiveness towards one another. The absence of free will would bring about a state of chaos and there would be no laws, nor would there be a desire to write laws. We would simply go on killing each other without repercussions.

Our free will is evident in more than our lack of killing each other without regard to anything other than it is our nature to do so. Humans alone search for order in the universe and discover wonderful laws that God has put in place. Unlike animals, humans seek out order, since that is one of the many gifts given to us by God.

That order we search for has led us to use rockets meant for war to put man on the moon. Splitting the atom and dropping bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not lead to other bombs being dropped, but to finding a source of power. Free will has enabled us to do this and so much more. Animals live based on the laws of nature, but humans live based on the laws of God, who is the creator of the laws that govern the universe.

To deny the existence of free will is to deny just how unique we are as a species. We are not some advanced breed of monkey, as Professor Hawking claimed, but designed by God to be so much more than the animals He created. When we deny our own uniqueness, we deny the very existence of God.